Saturday, September 7, 2019

I will discuss about the problem of over population and STDs and Essay

I will discuss about the problem of over population and STDs and propose solution such as using condoms that should help people - Essay Example With the opposing viewpoints of pro-life and pro-choice though, there is a glaring promise with appropriate education and the use of barrier contraceptives. Why educate? Illiteracy causes people to take things for granted. People do not understand how overpopulation can be perilous to human survival in terms of the competition for food and resources. With that, family planning programs fail to penetrate the society’s outlook and the excessive rise of human population results from irresponsible parenthood and unwanted pregnancies. Furthermore, without appropriate education, STD cases continue to rise significantly especially among the young adult population worldwide. Sex education varies widely across nations. Some countries start to introduce topics of conception as early as 7 years old, while few countries still debate on the extent of how much is to be taught considering its ethical aspect to their culture and religion. Contraception, for instance, faced great controversy a nd garnered criticisms as to its moral and ethical impact. Debates usually arise when the use of contraceptives is taken into consideration. One online article by Kelly Shircliff strongly points out that â€Å"contraceptives are anti- life†. ... Unlike abortion, barrier methods need not be tagged with an ethical dilemma since any union of sperm and ovum does not occur. And unlike anti- ovulant drugs, condoms do not interfere with the body’s natural processes. Furthermore, the use of condoms prevents transmission of infection by preventing actual contact with secretions in the reproductive tract of both partners. In fact, in an interview by Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict XVI said that â€Å"there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Simply speaking, the pope himself considers using condom as a protection against the â€Å"evil of HIV infection†. Undeniably, this pressing issue cannot be solved by hypocrisy. Meanwhile, according to the Center for Disease Control, reportable sexually contracted infections affect more than 15 million Americans per year and account for almost one third of the reproductive mortality in the United States. This is ultimately alarming since the country’s manpower is affected which in turn impairs development. In addition, the total cost of health care on STD cases reaches from $9.3B to $15.5B in mid 1990s (Chesson et. al. 11). Spending this huge amount of money could have been prevented had the government took effective preventive measures, that is, by promoting the use of condoms. While drafting the proposal, the government may face the criticisms of the conservative, religious and political parties of the society. Taking it in positive perspective, a feasible and acceptable policy will likely be formulated. First, condoms must be made readily available and less expensive to target consumers. The government may purchase condoms from manufacturing companies and in turn sell it

Friday, September 6, 2019

A day in the life of a bike warehouse worker Essay Example for Free

A day in the life of a bike warehouse worker Essay It was six oclock and for the first time in about two years I woke up before my alarm went off. My curtains were not pulled right together so a stream of light was shining on my face. I sat up in bed and looked on my calendar to see what day it was; it was Monday, the first day of my work experience. I got myself out of bed and headed for the shower. The house was so still, every little sound I made seemed to be ten times loader than what it actually was. Like every other morning I had a wash and got changed then crept down stairs to the kitchen. I took a quick glance at the big clock on the wall but the batteries which were destined to run out had finally run flat. I had to find my phone, which Im constantly forgetting where I put, to know the time. I had put it by the cookery books so that I would see it and not panic like every other morning. It was six forty-five which left me fifteen minutes to grab some breakfast before leaving to do my normal everyday paper round. I took a look in the cupboard to find there was nothing worth having, probably a shopping day knowing my luck. I skipped breakfast and jumped on my bike and headed for the local paper shop. I knew that I had to be at the bike shop for my work experience at about nine oclock so I figured that I had to hurry up on doing my paper round. When I got the the shop, the shop owner, Paul, was waiting at the door with some bad news. The shop has two paper rounds one which I do and another which my friend David did. He gave me the good news that David had quit with no warning. Usually I would be excited about this because if I did both the paper rounds I would be paid double but the only downfall was I wasnt sure if I had enough time to do both the paper rounds. Anyway I put all the papers in the bag and did the most strenuous exercise I had done in a long time. It paid off though as that morning I witnessed the most beautiful sun rise. I finally got home, tired out and surprisingly quite cold. Looking at the clock on my mobile phone I had realised that I had been out delivering papers for one and a half hours, allowing me just thirty minutes to get ready and get the the other side of town. I quickly got changed into some suitable clothes and then made my way towards the town. On the way to the town I kept asking myself questions, what will I have to do? Will I be able to do the things which tom did last week? I wonder what the staff will be like? I managed to get myself really nervous about the whole idea of working with people I dont know and if I was really up for the job. I arrived at the shop ten minutes early so that I could introduce myself and get to know the staff a little bit. The main person in charge, Luke, set me off to do my first task which he said was the most important task off all. I was expecting to hear something to do with the bikes but instead he said I dont suppose you can run up to Aldays and grab use a pint of semi skimmed milk. It was when he told me to get the milk when I realised they were going to take advantage of me and make me do all the things which they didnt want to. Anyway, I was there to experience work and if thats what higher ranked staff do, and then thats what I was there to experience. When I came back to the shop with the milk Luke told me to follow him to the kitchen. The kitchen was a small, dirty and smelly room which was mainly used to store bike parts. The only thing that made it a kitchen was the fact that it had a small, filthy sink, a kettle and a bag of tea bags which my best mate Tom had brought in the previous week. In the kitchen were a number of large boxes which contained bikes. Luke pulled one into the middle of the room and asked me to build it in the kitchen whilst he went back to the till to repair some other bikes. This was the part I was dreading most of all, I had never built a bike from flat pack before and there I was expected to know how it all goes together. I opened the box and took a peep inside. The only way of describing what the bike looked like then was simply a box of bits. I took out everything and placed them in an orderly fashion across the floor. I was expecting to find a small booklet or leaflet with instructions on how to build the bike but there wasnt any. I didnt want the staff to know that I came to the bike shop not knowing how to build a bike so I decided to have a go at making it how I thought it went. The first main problem I came across was the packaging. Everything was really well packaged and taped up and all I had to remove it with was a small pair of very blunt scissors. I took a look at the parts in front of me and got cracking with making the bike. Most of the building was pure common sense but there were a few occasions where I had to take apart previous parts so that I could correct myself in places. Once I had finished making the bike I had to adjust the brakes and make sure that everything was in good order. There were lots of bare cable ends which I had to cover but unfortunately I caught the end of my finger on one of the thin cable ends leaving me in agony. I stood up, took a step back and looked at what I had done. I had made my first ever bike from scratch and I must admit, I thought I had done a very good job of it. I went out to find one of the staff members so that they could see if I had done everything ok. A young worker there called Steve came into the kitchen to check over the bike. I was biting my nails and gritting my teeth, hoping that I had done the job correctly. He was being very precise looking at every adjustment and checking that every screw was tight. He stopped what he was doing, leant the bike against the wall and said Well done, you can carry on with the rest of the bikes in the store room. I was so over the moon. I had taught myself a new skill which in the future could help me out. Now that my confidence was a lot better, I found I could make the bikes a lot quicker. I made a further three bikes each a bit different before Luke came into the room and told me that I deserved a lunch break. I took advantage of my break by jogging home and getting myself some lunch. When I came back to the shop I wanted to get straight back into it but there were other jobs that needed to be done. During my break a small lorry fully of ready and unready made bikes had arrived at the shop. With help from John, another employee of the shop, I removed all the bikes and boxes from the lorry to one of two cellars. Once the bikes were all down in the cellar I had the job of sorting them all out into different groups. I didnt really enjoy this much as the cellar was a dark, gloomy room with a not to pleasant smell in the air. I was happy to get out of there once I had finished sorting the bikes out. There was enough time to make a couple more bikes so I was sent back to the kitchen with my tools to make some more bikes from the store room. The radio wasnt too good as the aerial had broken off, so I found myself a tape which I could work to. The time really flew as my mind was in working mode. At three oclock Luke came back into the kitchen and checked all the bikes I had done. He was very impressed with what I had done and told me that I could go home. The room looked like a bomb had been set off in it so I cleared away all the tools I was using, put all the bikes I had built into stock and washed up the cups. I was now ready to go home. On the way out Luke said thank you for the work and said that he would discount me if I needed to buy any thing for my bike. I said good bye and went home. On the way home I thought about how my day had been. I realised that although I didnt originally want to work at the bike shop, it wasnt as bad as what I was expecting. In life youre not always going to get the jobs you want so I decided that for the rest of the week I was going to make the most of the experience.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Leadership theories in the context of healthcare management

Leadership theories in the context of healthcare management Do healthcare mangers need leadership theories? Critically evaluate at least two leadership theories in the context of healthcare management. According to Huczynski and Buchanan (2007), Leadership is defined as the process of influencing the activities of an organised group in its effort towards goal setting and goal achievement. Grint (2005:2) describes leadership as a function of relationship between leaders and followers, rather than simply focused on the person of the leader. According to Bass (1990:19), leadership is an interaction between two or more members of the group that often involves a structuring or restructuring of the situations, perceptions and expectations of the members. Thus it can be said from the above definitions that leadership is enacted through relationships with others i.e. the followers and leadership is widely distributed throughout the organization. Healthcare organisations around the world spend enormous amount of money in infrastructure and renovating facilities in hospitals, but spend a relatively less time or effort for the management of people who work in it. Effective leadership is therefore necessary for the smooth functioning of healthcare organization. According to Gunderman R. (2009), healthcare leaders should understand the nature of the organization where they work and should work in harmony with physicians, nurses, technologists, administrators and other members of organization. The people who work in healthcare organizations as leaders should understand the needs of the people they work with and should motivate them in order to increase their performance. Thus the overall performance of the organization depends upon the behaviour of leaders with their followers. Failure to understand human motivation can result in downfall of the organization. Medical leaders should look at the following questions: Which is more effective way to deal with the workers, benefits such as salary raises and public praise, or sticks, such as threat of termination and reduction in compensation? How can we improve workers performance, through tighter control or by increasing autonomy and empowerment? If the crucial needs of the workers are not fulfill ed it can affect their commitment towards organization and may result in financial instability of the organization. Leadership and management are often compared under the same platform. People are often confused and ask a question, Are managers leaders? The answer is NO, they differ from each other in many ways. Leadership is one of the roles that managers have to play and is therefore a subset of management. According to Gopee and Galloway (2009), management is about measuring and monitoring performance against pre-determined goals, following policies and procedures, controlling and organizing the structure and systems, working within resource allocation and maximizing output and productivity for the organization. Whilst on the other side leadership is about being visionary, anticipating change, motivating and inspiring workers and focusing on development of individuals. Watson (1983), describes seven Ss models to distinguish between leaders and managers. According to Watson (1983), managers mainly rely upon 3 Ss namely strategy, structure and systems, whereas leaders depends on 4 soft Ss called style, staff, skills and shared goals. Hollingsworth (1999) suggests fundamental differences between leaders and managers. According to him managers do things right i.e. they are transactional, while leaders do the right things i.e. transformational, managers administer while leaders innovate, manager focus on systems and structure while leaders focus on people. Thus leadership is a two-way process based on leader-follower relationship while management is based on relationship between the people working in the organization as individuals or teams. (Gopee and Gathway, 2009). Theories of Leadership: Several leadership theories have emerged over the past suggesting practical applications of leadership and its concept. Different leadership theories that are developed since 1920s are listed below: Time period 1920s 1940s Theory Trait or Great man theory Barnard (1938) for prescriptives: Ghiselli and Wald Doty (1954) for the descriptives. Style or behavioural theory Blake and Mouton (1964), Likert (1961) and McGregor (1960) Focus Intelligence, initiative and self-assurance. Participative culture, Represented a more democratic humanistic approach to the use of man in organisations and come at the time of reaction against scientific management. 1960s Contingency theory Fielder (1967), Schein (1980) and Vroom and Yetton (1973) An integrative way of looking at leadership, more specific to task work group and position of leader within that work group. A best fit approach. 1980s Post contingencies theory Bennis (1992), Kotter (1982), Mant (1983) and Peters and Waterman (1982) This theory particularly focused on American Business leaders with some perceptive comments as well as Anglo-Saxon leadership habits. 1990s Transformational leadership Bass and Avolio (1993), Cunningham and Kitson (2000a, 2000b) and Sushter (1994) Four components. 1. Idealised influence; 2. Inspirational motivation; 3. Intellectual stimulation; and 4. Individualised consideration. Late 90s-2000s Contemporary theories. Goleman (1999), Jumaa (2001), Alleyne (2002), Goffee and Jones (2000) Charismatic leadership Connective leadership Servant leadership Transactional leadership Transformational leadership Adapted from- Jasper M. and Jumaa M (2005), Effective Healthcare Leadership,page-25-26 Trait or Great man leadership theory. According to this theory certain persons have inborn leadership traits. Many studies were conducted by the end of 1950s which explored specific characteristics of effective leaders. (Handy 1993). These studies described significant correlation between leadership effectiveness and following traits: Intelligence Self-confidence Knowledge Initiative Supervisory ability Integrity Bass (1990), based on several findings from studies developed a profile of traits that are marked in effective leaders. These are categorised in 3 areas mainly: Intelligence -Judgement -Decisiveness -Knowledge -Fluency Personality -Adaptability -Alertness -integrity -Nonconformity Ability -Cooperativeness Popularity -Tact However the trait theory has certain weakness and problems like; the traits are very difficult to define accurately or to understand fully; many exceptional leaders do not possess all identified leadership traits; it cannot be concluded that a person is better or worse as a manager or leader only by possessing one or two traits. It is still questionable whether an individual could have all the traits for being a leader. However despite of many other leadership theories emerged today, trait theory has not been completely disregarded. For example- Recent research study conducted by kouzes and Posner (2007) concluded that Admired Leaders were likely to draw out specific characteristics, whereas 50% or more respondents selected: Honest (88%), Forward looking (71%), Competent (66%) and inspiring (65%). Around 28-47% of respondents selected intelligent, broad minded, straightforward, co-operative, dependable and imaginative as specific characteristics of effective leaders; while less than 25% of people selected ambitious, caring, mature, courageous, loyal, self controlled and independent. However there is no evidence between the correlation of nature and the essential characteristics of leader nor on what an effective leader is. It can be seen as trait of position, or power or knowledge and wisdom. Kotter (1990) suggested the functional approach and focused on the fact that the performance can be improved can be improved by training and the leadership skills can be developed over a period of time and perfected. He also suggested that organisations should not wait for leaders to come by their own rather grow their own by identifying employees which have certain potential to be a good leader. Transactional and Transformational theories have gained popularity for Leadership in Healthcare Organizations out of the various leadership theories available. Transactional leadership theory. Transactional theory of leadership is based on leading people by the virtue of management position held in the organizational hierarchy. It is seen that in this theory leaders identify the needs of the followers and transact with them. Thus this theory is considered as a social exchange process based on the power and reward system. In healthcare organisations this theory is related to the achievement of organizational goals which also includes attending health of local population.( Gopee and Galloway, 2005) According to Bass and Riggio (2006), the transactional theory is based on the leaders who are successful or effective in such a way that they maintain equilibrium and harmony by fulfilling their roles according to the procedures and policies and use incentives to enhance employee loyalty and performance. The transactional leader sets goals, gives direction and uses rewards to strengthen employees behaviour towards meeting or exceeding established goals (McGuire and Kennerly 2006). Although this theory supports status quo and is more predictable but it has also been criticised by various authors as it is lacking vision for future of the healthcare organisation. Thus the transactional theory of leadership has a very narrow focus and the leader can have a high self interest which may eventually lead to disturbance in the organisational structure.(Gopee and Galloway, 2009) Transformational leadership theory Transformational leadership is widely supported leadership approach for healthcare. According to Burnes (1978), transformational leadership is identified as a process where one or more person engage in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher level of motivation and morality. In transformational leadership leaders motivate their followers by transcending their own self interests, elevating their needs and making them aware of the mission of larger entity of the organisation where they belong. (Bass 1995). Transformational leadership is considered superior to the transactional leadership style as the whole workforce is developed as the part of the process whose main function is delivering organisations objective. This can be achieved by fostering identification, going beyond simple leader-follower transaction and developing and intellectually stimulating employees. (Vandenberghe et al. 2002). According to Murphy (2005), transformational leaders are visionary, self-confident, and self-aware in breaking professional boundaries to develop a multidisciplinary team approach towards patient care. Transformational leaders inspire the followers and motivate them to exercise leadership by encouraging their belief that have the potential to achieve high aims. Thus a transformational leader is the catalyst for creating new innovative organisational paradigms (Murphy 2005 :135). The transformational leadership style is described by Markham (1998) as collaborative, consultative and consensus seeking and attributing power to interpersonal skills and personal contact. Thus the transformational leadership allow the followers to develop ideas and aspirations on how things could be better in healthcare settings. It articulates a vision for betterment of the healthcare services and thus allows one to work for raising the standards of care and treatment. Manley (2001) identifies six transformational leadership processes in practice; Ability to develop a shared vision Inspiring and communicating Valuing others Challenging and stimulating Developing trust Enabling Using these processes, transformational leaders assist the people working with them to become empowered and take responsibility of ownership to practice challenges and solutions (Sashkin and Burke 1990). The impact of transformational leadership does not restrict to development of individuals but it can also produce significant changes in practice settings by influencing the organisational culture. One of the main features of the transformational leaders is that they can inspire other people to follow their clear vision and that they demonstrate self-confidence in their ability to articulate the vision and promote change.'( Mullally 2001). Transformational leadership is also compared to that of a leadership style previously called as charismaticleadership which is now out of fashion. For example, people like Hitler, Churchill, Mussolini, Mao Tse Tung and The Reverend Moon have been perceived as charismatic leaders in the past but in todays modern era it will be difficult to call them as transformational leaders. Charismatic leaders are assumed to use their magnetic personalities to attract the followers. They are usually good orators and share their imaginary ideas with followers to create a common purpose. For example-Barack Obama demonstrated this ability during his election campaign and is believed to demonstrate complex ideas in a comprehensible manner to his followers. The concept of transformational leadership and its applications in complex organisations such as healthcare is based on four central components (Bass 1998), (Plesek and Wilson 2001): Idealised influence (charisma) Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualised consideration Transformational leadership topic has been debated since the past three decades because the above four components can reflect the potential for causing organisational harm and destruction if the leader in the framework is supported by emotional intelligence (Goleman 2000a) to guide them through the swampy lowlands of organisational life (Schon 1983). According to Manley (2000) the transformational leadership approach is highly beneficial for the healthcare organisations as it has positive effects in the organisational change. An analysis of transformational leadership style in North America has shown qualities of integrity and honesty all strengthen by strong core of moral and ethical values (Bashor 2000). The key principle required in applying the transformational leadership in healthcare organisation needs much openness and honesty in all interactions (Jasper 2005). The use of personal qualities (such as charisma, influencing skills and communication) needs to be equally balanced by high levels of understanding and personal insight. This can be achieved through self perception and feedback from other colleagues. The ability to inspire and motivate depends upon the process of visioning. The leaders should be able to describe their ideas with clarity and details and should explain about the future consequences. To achieve this vision one should start working for the future vision by learning from the past realities and should show a collective effort where everyone has an opportunity to participate in the creation (Fenton 2003). Intellectual stimulation can be achieved by maintaining mental and intellectual alertness and acuity which can be gained by encouraging open criticism and deba te of wide ranging evidence base thus it helps to form the foundation of substantive change. The development of all individual towards their potential is one of the goals of transformational leadership. This can only be achieved by sharing thoughts of power bases in both organisations and interpersonal relationships. (Jumma and Jasper 2005). Thus it is seen that the two leadership approaches i.e. transformational and transactional approach are different from each other. Transactional leadership mainly involves transaction between the managers and their managed people while transformational leadership mainly focuses on various radical changes that can present challenges and growth for all. Comparison of Transformational and Transactional leadership approaches Transformational leadership Transactional leadership Merges own, followers and the organisations goals, desire values into common goal. Generates employee commitment to the vision. Challenges subordinate Rewards informally and personally Is emotional passionate about existing and new ventures Sees home and work on a continuum Aims to maintain equilibrium and status quo Is task-centred and orderly Coaches and fosters sheltered learning Uses extrinsic rewards High self-interest Sees home and work as separate entities. Adapted from- Gallow and Gopee (2009), Leadership and Management in Healthcare, page-59 Limitations of transformational theory: Although transformational leadership skills are highly desirable for effective functioning of an organisation, many management theorists like Bass, Avoliio and Goodheim (1987) think that transformational leadership alone can cause problem in long time. According to them transformational qualities must be coupled with more transactional qualities of day to day managerial role. According to Bass and colleagues, the transformational leader will fail without the traditional management skills. (Marquis and Huston 2009). They believe both sets of characteristics should be present in same person in different proportion. In Johnsons (2005) research he suggested that highly effective managers require both vision as well as specific plan to carry out their plans for achieving goals. Concept of leadership within the British National Health Service The New Labour Government included leadership as the part of their modernisation of the NHS and has been enshrined in the work of the NHS Leadership Centre, created in 2001as a part of NHS Modernisation Agency (The NHS Plan, DH 2000). The centre launched the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework in 2002 (NHS Leadership centre 2003) the components of this framework contains 15 qualities organised in 3 clusters of setting direction, personal and delivering the service. Components of NHS Leadership Qualities Framework Setting direction Personal qualities Delivering the service Broad scanning Intellectual flexibility Seizing the future Political astuteness Drive for results Self belief Self awareness Self management Drive for achievement Personal integrity Empowering others Holding to account Leading change through people Effective and strategic influencing Collaborative working These qualities reflect the values and beliefs intrinsic within the Governments political stance. Here the emphasis is on personal attributes and qualities as opposed to that of traditional source of authority and power or target driven incentives derived from business culture (Jumaa 2005). These qualities are considered as a set of key characteristics, attitudes and behaviours that a leader must possess in order to deliver the NHS plan; Setting the standard for leadership in NHS Assessing and developing high performance in leadership Integrating leadership across the service and related agency Individual and organisational assessment Adapting leadership to suit changing context. Case studies to demonstrate effectiveness of leadership theories. Case study 1. To measure the effectiveness of the new leadership framework in NHS, healthcare commission (now-Care Quality Commission) conducted a NHS staff survey. It was conducted in October 2003 and is probably the largest workforce survey in world. Total 572 organisations took part and around 203,911 NHS employees responded to the survey questionnaire. (www.cqc.org.uk) Results were produced before Healthcare Commission Executive Anna Walker. According to the survey more than 200,000 staff people told they liked working with NHS. Most of them were satisfied with their jobs but some part of the staff reported poorer work-life balance and higher level of work related stress. Thus healthcare commission urged NHS organisations to investigate and address these issues and try to get solution for it through more effective leadership approach. The fifth annual national survey of NHS staff was conducted between October and December 2007. In this survey 156,000 employees from all 391 NHS trusts in England responded to a questionnaire asking about their views and experience of working with the NHS. The aim of this survey was to look at the attitudes and experience of NHS staff so that the employers can review their own staff and take necessary action. The results of the survey showed that job satisfaction remained high among most of the staff. 75% of staff was satisfied or very satisfied as well as satisfaction with the amount of responsibility. While in terms of staff engagement mixed results were seen. Around only 23% i.e. less than quarter of staff agreed that senior managers involve staff in important decisions and only 22% agreed that communication between staff and senior management is effective. While only 26% of staff were satisfied, or very satisfied with the extent to which trust values their work. This was the sing le most common reason given by those thinking of leaving their jobs. Along with this 8% of staff said they had experienced some discrimination at work in the previous 12 months. About 3% said they had been discriminated against their ethnic background. Thus it can be concluded from the above two studies that the NHS staff were generally satisfied with their jobs. However there were some areas where significant action is needed for improvement. The NHS should also make some effective plans to value staff and engage them successfully in important decisions-making. While NHS should also do more in order to improve the communication between staff and senior management. Case study 2. The Healthcare Commission also conducted 5 surveys in 2004 to find out patients overall experience about the new NHS. The questionnaires and methodology were designed by the NHS Surveys Advice Centre at Picker institute Europe. About 850 eligible people were identified from each trust that took part. A total of 568 NHS organisations and 312,348 patients took part. The response rate for the patients varied from 63% for the adult in patient survey and 42% for the mental health survey. Results were published in first week of august 2004 and the Commission reported that patients gave positive opinions about the high quality care they received at the NHS. Majority of patients said they have trust and confidence in the clinical staff. They are listened to and treated with lot of dignity. Thus a great improvement in communication between the NHS staff and patients was seen and people were allowed to give their own suggestions regarding the facilities they would like to see as an improvement for the organisation. (Jasper and Jumaa 2005) Case study 3. The following case study is based on my experience of working at a Multinational Pharmaceutical company, Zydus-Cadila healthcare limited, India. It is an innovative global pharmaceutical company that discovers, manufacture and markets a wide range of healthcare products. It produces products like Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) to formulations like tablets, capsules, syrups etc Along with this it also manufactures various animal health products and cosmeceuticals. Headquarter of the company is located in Ahmedabad, India. It also has its offices spread across four continents and different countries including USA, Europe, Japan, Brazil, South Africa and 25 other emerging markets. They employ around 10,000 employees worldwide and have one of the best Research and Development centre for drug research. The motto of the group is Improving peoples lives through innovation. I had an opportunity to work there as a trainee for my under graduation internship for a duration of 6 months. My role included looking after the process involved in operation of different departments like production, packaging, storage, marketing and submitting daily report to the manager. The whole company was perfectly organised and the management was distributed in a systematic manner depending on the type of department. There were different mangers according to the department like for Human-Resource department, Production department, Quality-control department, RD (Research and development) department and the Marketing department. Each of the department had a head person above them under whose guidance all mangers used to work. According to me, the leadership approach in this organisation contained both transactional as well as transformational concepts of leadership theories. The manager under whom I used to work was a transactional leader. He was very particular about the work. Right from the first day of my training I found him a bit eccentric. He was not at all friendly with all of us working under him. He used to assign each of us a particular work for a day. For example- On the first day of my training I was told to go and check the ware house of the company where the finished goods were stored and to write the Standard Operating Procedure for dispensing the goods. Following his instructions we all went and did our report writing work. He came for a visit within 3 hours, gathered all of us and started asking questions about what we observed. Those who were unable to answer his question were scolded. He gave us first warning about our work and said those who will complete their work early and accuratel y will have the additional benefit i.e. they will be allowed to go home 1 hour early. This thing worked as an incentive amongst all of us and thus we became more enthusiastic towards our work. Slowly over a time it was realised that the way he was leading us was different from others. For him the sole purpose was getting the work done from us in such a way that each one of us feels excited about work. He was very professional at work while very jovial and friendly at home. He was totally task oriented and orderly person. He never accepted any ideas or suggestions from any of the followers. Thus he was more of a transactional type manager. The other type of manager under whom we were working is completely opposite of the above mentioned manager. He was our marketing department manager. He was a true example of transformational leader. The way he used to lead us was truly inspirational. He used to explain us the complete process before handling any work. He was very supportive at work and had a vision for companys success. His communication and motivation skills were excellent. Right from the first day of my training under him we liked working with him. He always welcomed new ideas and suggestions for marketing. He was very much focused about his vision and always strives hard to achieve it. He had good interactions with everybody in the team and always used to motivate us. He used to look at everybodys work personally and if he will notice any mistake in our work would teach how to correct it on the spot only. He used to ask for the feedback about his new ideas from each of us and correct himself if the feedback was no t satisfactory. This shows his eagerness to work with the team which created positive effects on each of the team members. He was never after rewards from the company. His only aim was taking companys sales to the epitome of success. He was fully dedicated to the company and worked with whole heartedness. Thus all of us used to work with great enthusiasm under his leadership. So he can be described as a perfect example of transformational leader. Hence the company Zydus-Cadila Healthcare limited has a mixture of transformational and transactional leaders which ultimately results in the success of company. Conclusion The essay here explains about various leadership theories in healthcare and its effectiveness by the use of some case studies. Healthcare organizations are complex in nature. It requires a well balanced management and leadership approaches to effectively run the organisation. Each individual in organisation should share their knowledge with others. This synergy among workers is the key part for generation of new ideas and concepts for the organisation. Many leadership theories have been developed since past and still it is continuously adapting a new change for the effective leadership theory. Considering leadership in healthcare it is seen from the example of NHS in the UK that the combination of both transactional and transformational leadership theory may be the most efficacious for an organisation. Thus the healthcare managers require leadership theories and put them in practice to make it work effectively. However, according to Grint (2005:105), one of the top secrets of leaders hip is not a list of innate skills and competences, or how much charisma you havebut whether you have a capacity to learn from you followers.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

The Existence of Black Holes Essays -- Concept Essays

The Existence of Black Holes I have always had an interest in science, especially in the sciences regarding outer space. When I was younger I was always fascinated with rockets, and especially in stars. I have often regretted not pursuing this interest at its infancy. I do remember going to the Planetarium, and studying about a topic that I had seen talked about on television. The topic was black holes, and back then all that they knew was that they were black. The idea of a space in the universe that is completely void of light was difficult to imagine. Recently, I have learned more about this topic and a science call cosmology. I had never even heard of this field of science before I was introduced to a scientist by the name of Stephen Hawking. The introduction was very informal. In fact, I have never even seen him. My first introduction to Stephen's theories came when I read a popular book that Stephen wrote called A Brief History of Time, in this book he attempts to explain some of his most complicated theor ies. These include the topics of black holes, imaginary time, and the origin of the universe. Stephen is the front runner in his field. Many of his peers consider his to be the greatest mind since Einstein. (Stone, 27) One of Stephen's areas of specialty that interests me is the topic of small mass exploded in the grandest explosion in history. Scientists today say that ever since the Big Bang the universe has been expanding at the speed of light. Stephen's theory is that eventually the universe will reach an outer limit and will then implode on itself at the speed of light. (A Brief History of Time, 76) The ideas that Stephen has about the lifetime of our universe are very complicated. I will not even pretend to c... ...se and everything in it at one time consisted in a very small mass. This mass contained an incredible amount of energy. The theory is that the Stephen's work in this field regarding blackholes, and imaginary time is unsurpassed by anyone and is truly remarkable. Bibliography Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Hawking, Stephen. A Reader's Guide to a Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam Books 1992. Hawking, Stephen. Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Hawking Stephen. An Essay On Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1992. Penrose, Roger. A Thesis on Relativity. New York: Bantam Books, 1990. Stone, Gene. A Reader's Companion to A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1992. Thorne, Kip. A Thesis on Quantum Mechanics. London: Oxford Publishing, 1989.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Islamic Economy in Saudi Arabian Companies Essay -- Economics

1. Saudi Companies Fund A. The institution of SAMA could not be a profit-making institution, it had to conform to Islamic law. SAMA has from time to time financed one-half of government debt. From 1962 to 1983, the governments earning grew in surplus, and all the debt was repaid. Whenever the government needed SAMA bolstered government reserves. B. In 1966 a major banking control law clarified and strengthened SAMA's role in regulating the banking system. Foreign banks submitted application for license. SAMA sent its recommendation to the ministry of finance. The ministry set conditions for granting licenses to foreign banks. C. Saudi companies introduced a great deal of regulation abiding with Sharia law. This law also defined requirements against deposits. There were several restriction to abide by SAMA's implementation of monetary policy. 2. The Saudi financial system A. The Saudi financial system had three autonomous government institutions. They were the pension fund, the general organization of Saudi insurance, and Saudi fund for development. These government instit...

Monday, September 2, 2019

Harry Elmer Barnes :: essays research papers

In 1952, Harry Elmer Barnes wrote a timely article, "How 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' Trends Threaten American Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity" as the final chapter of the classic revisionist anthology, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. Barnes analyzed George Orwell's classic novel as a work of prophecy and sounded the alarm to reverse the "1984" trends prevalent in the America of his day. Barnes argued that propagandists and "court historians" were fashioning a present, based on a falsified and inaccurate telling of the past, that was designed to meet Establishment desires to participate in world wars. Ironically,Barnes' article was omitted from the first edition the collection.(1) Barnes may be best remembered as the author of the generally accepted definition of "revisionism," "Revisionism means nothing more or less than the effort to correct the historical record in the light of a more complete collection of historical facts, a more calm political atmosphere, and a more objective attitude." (2) Barnes had discovered that a more nearly accurate version of the history of the First World War was only possible after the fighting had ended and the emotional excesses had lessened. He was unable to predict that similar corrections of Allied propaganda and popularized conceptions of the methods of warfare in the Second World War would meet even sterner resistance. Today - half a century after the conclusion of the Second World War - it would be fair to expect a less emotional environment, one in which historians, researchers and writers were free to examine the actual causes of the war as well as the atrocities committed by both sides in the conflict. However, those and other topics are more forbidden than ever with the greatest taboo surrounding analysis of the fate of Europe's Jews and others in what has come to be known as the Holocaust. In 1950, three years prior to Barnes' article concerning "1984" trends another author, Ray Bradbury, set out a foreboding vision of the future in a short story titled, "The Fireman." Later, Bradbury's story would be renamed Fahrenheit 451 after the temperature at which paper burns. Fahrenheit 451 describes a horrific future in which millions of books are banned and firemen set fires instead of extinguishing them. In order to maintain a society of brainwashed, "happy" people, the firemen kick down doors and burn the hated volumes along with the homes that housed them. Barnes would never have suspected how fast the world would progress from the "1984" trends he identified to the trends Bradbury identified in Fahrenheit 451(3).

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Let’s Be Lefties For a Day

The discussion of the importance of understanding cultural, ethnic, and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting begins with defining the key terms. Diversity is defined as â€Å"real or perceived differences among people that affect their interactions and relationships â€Å"(Bell, 2007). According to Week 1 lecture (SOCS 350, 2013), cultural diversity is defined as: â€Å"the existence of a wide variety of cultures and subcultures represented within a community†. This is evident in most work settings across the world. So how do I understand the importance and differences brought to the table by all of the different individuals? In our textbook Diversity in Organizations, it talks about Taylor Cox and Stacy Blake’s research studies on understanding diversity in the workplace. Their studies and explanations have been used in many textbooks and news regarding diversity. They explain how effective management of diversity can benefit organizations in the area of cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem solving, and system flexibility. I agree that diversity can bring so much to a workplace. A personal experience of mine occurred at the community hospital near my hometown. The hospital had a predominantly low-income, African American population that used the emergency room. I was a young Caucasian woman who quickly became charge nurse for the night shift. During busy times, which occurs quite often in emergency rooms, I would be yelled at and even called racist if a white person was called back to a room first. I was lucky enough to have the benefit of the mayor of the predominantly African American community work as a LPN in the emergency room with me. He was an older African American, well known throughout the community, and very well respected. I could send him out to talk to unhappy patients because they took better to him, probably due to having the same ethnic/cultural background. He then explained things again and for some reason it was most often taken better, and proved I was not being racist and these are the policies that I followed. In the workplace though, especially a hospital setting, it is extremely beneficial to have all cultural backgrounds employed. Every patient that comes in is not going to be of the same ethnic or cultural background as you and sometimes like in my example it is easier to relate to someone with the same ethnicity. It is a beneficial skill for employees to understand different cultures to communicate effectively. Cox and Blake also proposed that â€Å"an organization’s reputation for valuing all types of workers will also affect its ability to market to different types of consumers. Consumers who appreciate fair treatment for everyone will be more likely to patronize an organization known to value diversity and to treat all workers fairly†. I truly believe that is accurate, and is shown to be proven accurate at my hospital. In our example in class using the ball and sock experiment, I learned how diverse America is. People do things a little bit different, and that is what makes us a culturally diverse country. Just because you do something right-handed and I do it left-handed does not mean I am doing it wrong. I am left-handed, and yes I have become ambidextrous also because of the predominantly right-handed population. This just shows me that people are able to adapt to change, and not one certain way, color, gender, race, age is better than another. There are numerous benefits to valuing diversity, especially in a business setting. With each unique combination of gender, ethnic background, culture, and life experiences, each person brings different sets of strengths, skills, and approaches to problems. I believe all businesses can benefit from a diverse body of talent bringing fresh ideas, perspectives, and views to the workplace.